Learning to Walk

Last night’s training session with Lacey and her family consisted of a short walk. The goal was two-fold: Improve the use of the leash, and teach Lacey’s human boy how to lead her with the leash.

The walk itself went very well, with Lacey doing her best to maintain a heel position in spite of the many distractions she had to contend with. But her human boy became overwhelmed and was unable to cope. This put Lacey in a position where she had to give the support she’s being trained to provide – a task that was made rather difficult by a couple of important factors. First, when she tried to give support, her boy rejected her. Secondly, she was distracted by new sights, sounds, and smells, and she was trying very hard to ignore them and focus on helping her human. So, when her human rejected her efforts to help him, she ignored him and focused her attention on her environment. This is not the correct response from her, but Lacey is still a puppy. It will take time and patience, but she will eventually learn – and figure out on her own – how to provide support even if her human is showing her rejection. There are many ways she can do her job despite those kinds of challenges.

The video below is a short example of the overall results of last night’s training walk. In an interesting note, while making the video, Lacey exhibited a great deal of anxiety every time she heard the voices of her humans. She started searching the house for them, whining the entire time. I’m happy that she recognizes their voices and she wants to be with them, but her anxiety is an issue that must be addressed.

Constructive comments and suggestions are always welcomed and would be very much appreciated. Enjoy the video, and have a great day.